Title: Vocabulary and Word Roots Lesson Plan
Grade: 5th Grade
Teacher: Autumn Vincent
Student Ages: 10-11 years old
Goals: D.8.1 Develop their vocabulary and ability to use words, phrases, idioms, and various
grammatical structures as a means of improving communication.
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Consult dictionaries, thesauruses, handbooks, and grammar texts when choosing words,
phrases, and expressions for use in oral and written presentations
Pre-Assessment:
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Ask students the following question to assess the students’ prior knowledge of word roots
at the beginning of the lesson. What is a word root? Have students raise their hands, and
have two or three children answer the question.
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Ask the students the following question to assess if children have prior knowledge of
some root words that are used in the English language in the lesson introduction. What
root words are you familiar with that you have seen used in the English language? Have
the students raise their hands to answer the question. As the children list root words they
are familiar with that are used in the English language, list the words on the white board
for the children to use and see.
Objective:
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Students will read words with the roots of rupt and struct.
Students will know the meaning of the roots rupt and struct.
Students will understand the academic language of the word “word root”.
Students will write sentences using words with the roots of “rupt” and “struct”.
Assessment:
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Write the following six phrases on the white board (structures collapsed, disrupted traffic,
interrupted a television show, stopped abruptly, instructions on where to go, ruptured the
ground)
Have the students work together to decode the word roots in each phrase, and have the
children work together to define each word. The teacher will walk around the room to
assess the students work.
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Have six groups come up front to share how they decoded the word root to define
the six underlined words on the board.
While the children are sharing their work and strategies, ask the students the
following questions. What word are you decoding and defining? What root word
is present in the word? What is the meaning of the word root that is present? How
did you define the underlined word with your partner? Did you use the dictionary
to help you define the word? How did the dictionary help you define the word that
was underlined?
Have the students work independently to complete the closing assessment. Have
the students write in their language arts notebook ten different sentences using
words with the root words “rupt” and “sturct” to demonstrate their knowledge of
new vocabulary words and to demonstrate their understanding of how to use
words with word roots in sentences. The students will need to write five sentences
using the root word “rupt” and write five sentences with the word “struct”. The
students may use a dictionary if needed to help them learn new words to use in
their sentences.
Materials Needed: White Board, Dry Erase Markers, Language Arts Notebooks, Pencils,
Dictionaries
Total Time Needed: minutes
Procedures:
Introduction: 5 minutes
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Have students sit in their assigned seats in order to look at the white board in front of the
room.
Ask students the following question to assess the students’ prior knowledge of word
roots. What is a word root? Have students raise their hands, and have two or three
children answer the question.
Explain to the students that a “word root” is a part of a word. The root is a section of a
word that has meaning, but the word root cannot be a word on its own.
Ask the students the following question to assess if children have prior knowledge of
some root words that are used in the English language. What root words are you familiar
with that you have seen used in the English language? Have the students raise their hands
to answer the question. As the children list root words they are familiar with that are used
in the English language, list the words on the white board for the children to use.
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Explain to the children that today, they are learning the word roots of “rupt” and “struct”
to help them develop their vocabulary knowledge.
Demonstration: 5 minutes
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Write on the board Mount Saint Helen’s erupted.
Visually dissect the word erupted into two sections: “e” and “rupted”
Explain to the students that the word root in the word erupted is “rupt”. Rupt is from the
Latin word that means “break” or “burst”.
The word part e means “out of”.
You can then put the two roots together to create an overall meaning.
You can combine the two roots to create the word “erupted” which means “to burst out
of”.
Write the sentence “The lava was destructive” on the white board.
Explain to the students that another word root we are studying is the root “struct”.
“Struct” is a word root from is from a Latin word that means “build”.
Visually divide the word “destructive into two sections, de and structive.
The word part de- means “undo” and “struct” means build.
If you put the two roots together (de and struct) you create the word destructive which
means “unbuilding” or “destroying”.
Practice/Participation: 5 minutes
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Have each student work with a partner sitting next to them.
Write the words abrupt and construction on the white board for the children to examine.
Have the students write the two words in their language arts notebook and explain to
them they will be learning how to find word roots within words that are given to them.
Have the students work with a partner to underline the word root in each word.
Walk around the room as an assessment to assess if the children can underline the word
root.
Demonstration:
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Write “The damaged railway lines had to be reconstructed after the blast” on the white
board. Underline the word reconstructed since it has the word root “structed”.
Use I language to model how to find the meaning of the word “reconstructed”.
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State to the children, “I recognize the word root in the sentence. The word reconstructed
has the word root “struct” in it. I know “struct” means “build”. Since “struct” is in
reconstructed, I believe the word has to do with building. The word describes an action
being done to the railroads since they are damaged. Maybe it means to “rebuild” since de
means to undo. Maybe re means to redo? I will use the word rebuild in a sentence to
make sure the meaning of that word makes since in the sentence.
Explain to students that if they are having difficulty understanding the meaning of a
word, they can use a dictionary as a resource.
Practice/Participation:
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Have students work with a partner near them.
Write the following six phrases on the white board (structures collapsed, disrupted traffic,
interrupted a television show, stopped abruptly, instructions on where to go, ruptured the
ground)
Have the students work together to decode the word roots in each phrase, and have the
children work together to define each word. The teacher will walk around the room to
assess the students work.
After the exercise, ask the children the following question to have a discussion about the
material. How can we use our knowledge of word roots to help us define words that are
unknown to use?
Assessment: minutes

Write the following six phrases on the white board (structures collapsed, disrupted traffic,
interrupted a television show, stopped abruptly, instructions on where to go, ruptured the
ground)
 Have the students work together to decode the word roots in each phrase, and have the
children work together to define each word. The teacher will walk around the room to
assess the students work
 Have six groups come up front to share how they decoded the word root to define the six
underlined words on the board.

While the children are sharing their work and strategies, ask the students the following
questions. What word are you decoding and defining? What root word is present in the word?
What is the meaning of the word root that is present? How did you define the underlined
word with your partner? Did you use the dictionary to help you define the word? How did the
dictionary help you define the word that was underlined?

Have the students work independently to complete the closing assessment. Have
the students write in their language arts notebook ten different sentences using
words with the root words “rupt” and “sturct” to demonstrate their knowledge of
new vocabulary words and to demonstrate their understanding of how to use
words with word roots in sentences. The students will need to write five sentences
using the root word “rupt” and write five sentences with the word “struct”. The
students may use a dictionary if needed to help them learn new words to use in
their sentences. The teacher will walk around the classroom to assess the students
work and to help the students stay motivated in their learning.
Questioning: (Included in the lesson)
Introduction:
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What is a word root?
What root words are you familiar with that you have seen used in the English language?
Demonstration:
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How can we use our knowledge of word roots to help us define words that are unknown
to use?
Assessment:
 What word are you decoding and defining?
 What root word is present in the word?
 What is the meaning of the word root that is present?
 How did you define the underlined word with your partner?
 Did you use the dictionary to help you define the word?
 How did the dictionary help you define the word that was underlined?
Strategies for Students Requiring Additional Assistance:
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While writing sentences, students can work with partners in order to write sentences
using words with the word roots “rupt” and “struct”. The students can learn from one
another new vocabulary words.
Students can use a dictionary to help them define words and to write sentences using the
words with word roots during the assessment.
Closure:
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Have the students work independently to complete the closing assessment. Have
the students write in their language arts notebook ten different sentences using
words with the root words “rupt” and “sturct” to demonstrate their knowledge of
new vocabulary words and to demonstrate their understanding of how to use word
roots in sentences. The students will need to write five sentences using words with
the word root “rupt” and write five sentences with the word with the word root of
“struct”. The students may use a dictionary if needed to help them learn new
words to use in their sentences. The teacher will walk around the classroom to
assess the students work and to help the students stay motivated in their learning.
Students who are done writing their sentences can use their dictionaries to make a
list of words in the English language of words with the word roots of “rupt” and
“struct” in order to help the children develop their vocabulary.